Send out the clowns

Thursday

Jan 24, 2013 at 3:09 PM

Clowns.That's how Lindel Toups said his colleagues' behavior makes the Lafourche Parish Council look.“It makes us look like clowns,” Councilman Toups said before Tuesday's meeting.It's hard to argue with him.

Michael GormanEditorial Page Editor

Clowns.That's how Lindel Toups said his colleagues' behavior makes the Lafourche Parish Council look.“It makes us look like clowns,” Councilman Toups said before Tuesday's meeting.It's hard to argue with him.Whether it is Councilman Daniel Lorraine harping on Parish President Charlotte Randolph or Councilmen John Arnold and Jerry Lafont getting into a shoving match outside a council meeting, the council members have never felt the need to distinguish themselves with good behavior.Lorraine's antics on the council are legendary.He has spent years sparring with Randolph, after doing the same with her predecessor, Buzz Breaux.As one of the Council Five, Lorraine had a big hand in imposing a standstill on the parish during Breaux's tenure as president. For years, the council refused to approve a budget, and members of the majority five bragged that they would never approve a department head for Breaux.The predictable result was that the parish suffered in service to the egos of the five.Back then, Lorraine and his cohorts took their marching orders from Councilman Charles Banta, who was eventually forced from office because of his criminal past.Now, the buffoonery remains even if much of its structure has been removed.Banta isn't calling the shots anymore.And the opposition to Randolph isn't as stiff or as unified as it was to Breaux.But the councilmen still seem to compete with one another over who can make the most ridiculous joke out of public service.At times, Lorraine seems to be running away with the honor. But then another councilman will catch up.Last year, for instance, Councilman Jerry Jones conducted a crusade against then-parish administrator Crystal Chiasson. Even though Chiasson was duly nominated to office and approved by the council, Jones took aim at her for the supposed sin of living outside the parish.Jones succeeded in having a Home Rule Charter amendment placed on the November ballot, and local voters obliged him by approving his nonsense — unquestionably the product of some newfound vendetta against Randolph.Just what we needed, right? More personal rancor between public officials will certainly be right at home on the Parish Council.At least one person is trying to do something about it, but we'll have to wait and see how effective that effort is.Councilman Aaron Caillouet proposed and the council approved a resolution requiring the body to follow Robert's Rules of Order, the commonly accepted guide for how to run meetings.In most crowds, accepting the guidelines laid out in Robert's Rules would be a foregone conclusion.It just seems like a good idea to run meetings with the understanding that members of the council will not personally attack one another, that they will confine their comments to the issues before the council.But this ain't your average crowd.These guys revel in conflict. And the more personal that conflict is, the better.Even in discussing whether they should adopt Robert's as a guide, Lorraine couldn't help but violate this minimal standard of decorum.“Mr. Caillouet ... when you are going to follow Robert's Rules of Order, I will consider it,” Lorraine said, arguing the rules are unnecessary even as he violated one of their most-basic principles.Nothing is going to make these guys respect each other or the offices to which they've been elected. Nothing is going to make them respect the people of the parish more than the sounds of their own voices.But having a guide in place that at least gives examples of proper behavior would be an excellent starting point.Clowns aren't all bad. They're just not what most of us want in a parish council.

Editorial Page Editor Michael Gorman can be reached at 448-7612 or by e-mail at mike.gorman@dailycomet.com.

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